Shaykh al-Islām Imām Abu’l Ábbās Aĥmed ibn Muĥammad ibn Álī ibn Ĥajar al-Makki as-Sáadī al-Anşārī al-Haytamī was born in the year 909 AH [1504 CE]. His father died when al-Haytamī was only a small child; so he was taken in the care of his [great] grandfather who had become famous by the sobriquet ĥajar, or the ‘stone’. Al-Fakihi writes that Al-Haytami would not write Al-Ansari with his name, out of humility.

His grandfather was an outstanding scholar and a man of exemplary piety, who spoke very little and only if necessary. His silence was so famous that people nicknamed him ‘Stone’; that is, 'as silent as a stone'. His progeny carried that epithet with their names.

Shaykh al-Islām al-Haytami saw him in his advanced years, estimated somewhere around a hundred and twenty; he says: ‘He was in perfect mental health and he used to worship amply even then.’ This grandfather had migrated to the western quarter in the area of Haytam, hence the appellation of Shaykh al-Islām as Al-Haytamī.

When his grandfather died, he was taken in by his father’s teacher, the noble shaykh Shams al-Shannāwī and Al-Shannawī’s teacher Shams ibn Abi’l Ĥamāyil, who was the foremost student of Ábd ar-Raūf al-Munāwī. Shaykh al-Islām Zakariyyah al-Anşārī used to respect him immensely and refer to him as: ‘our brother and our master.’ Ibn Abi’l Ĥamāyil cared about Al-Haytami and wrote specifically about him in his will to Al-Shannāwī.

Al-Haytami studied under both these great scholars at the mausolem of the gnostic, Sayyid Aĥmed al-Badawī. In the year 924 AH, he was transferred to Al-Az’har where he joined the scholars of Egypt at a very young age. He studied under the students of Ibn Ĥajar al-Ásqalānī, and foremost among them, Shaykh al-Islām Zakariyyah al-Anşārī. Whenever al-Haytamī would come to him, Shaykh Zakariyyah would pray for him: ‘I ask Allāh to give you knowledge of the religion.’ Al-Haytamī says: ‘I debated with senior teachers on the issue of the existence of the qutub, awtād and other grades of awliya’a; when we met with Shaykh al-Islām, he supported my view emphatically and then blessed me.’

He took authorizations from Ar-Ramlī, Al-Bakri and At-Ţablāwī. When he was only twenty, in the year 929AH, his teachers authorized him to issue legal rulings and granted him this permission on their own initiative even though Al-Haytami had not requested for it.

In the year, 932 AH, Shaykh Al-Shannāwī advised him to get married. Al-Haytamī replied that he was poor and could not afford a marriage. Al-Shannāwī said that the proposal was for his own neice and offered to pay the dower himself. Thus Al-Haytamī married Al-Shannāwi’s neice.

Thereafter, in the year 934 AH, he went on pilgrimage [ĥajj] in the company of his shaykh, Al-Bakrī. Al-Haytamī had an urge to write a book in fiqh, whilst he was in Makkah; he saw Ĥārith al-Muĥāsibi in a dream commanding him to write the book and giving him glad tidings about it. Al-Haytami says: “This reminded me of a dream I had seen when I was still a student. I saw a beautiful woman who showed me her stomach and said: ‘write the text here in red, and its explanation below in black.’ I was distressed with such a dream but the knowledgeable interpreted it favorably and said: that ‘your writings and books will be famous across the world after being obscure or unnoticed for some time.’” He continued: ‘thereafter, I began writing the exegesis of Al-Irshād.’

When he returned from Makkah, he wrote an abridgement of Al-Rawđah, Al-Jawāhir, Al-Minhāj and Al-Anwār. He then went on pilgrimage with his family again in the company of his shaykh, in the year 937 AH.

When he returned, he suffered at the hands of people in Egypt; one of his jealous enemies took hold of [the manuscript of] his exegesis of Al-Rawđ and destroyed it. This caused him immense hurt and finally he decided to relocate to Makkah, where he taught and wrote until he passed away in the year 974 AH [1567 CE.]

His works:

1. Mablaghu’l Arab fī Fađāyil al-Árab[Attaining of Aspirations: on the Superiority of Arabs]